1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet feeding device and an image forming apparatus, and more specifically, to a sheet feeding device that separately feeds a sheet one by one and an image forming apparatus including the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, an image forming apparatus such as a printer or a copying machine includes a sheet feeding device that separately feeds a sheet accommodated in a sheet storing portion one by one and the sheet feeding device includes a pickup portion that abuts on the sheet accommodated in the sheet storing portion to feed the sheet. As the pickup portion, for example, a technique that rotates a paddle wheel to apply an impact power on a sheet to separate the sheet and feed the separated sheet is suggested (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,733).
Here, a sheet feeding device that discharges the sheet using the paddle wheel is illustrated in FIG. 8. As illustrated in FIG. 8, the above-described sheet feeding device includes a paddle wheel 100 having a plurality of blades 101 and an energy storage portion 102 that abuts on the plurality of blades 101 to store energy in the plurality of blades 101. If the conveying operation of the sheet S starts, the paddle wheel 100 is rotated and the plurality of blades 101 is bounced from the energy storage portion 102 so that the bounced blades 101 come in contact with the sheet S to apply an impact power to the sheet S. Thus, the sheet S is separated to be fed in a sheet feeding direction.
However, in a state where it is difficult to separate the combined sheets due to cutting burr that occurs at an edge of a sheet caused by a cutting trouble when the sheet is manufactured, it may be difficult to separate the sheets S to feed the sheet even by rotating the plurality of blades 101.
Further, in a method that rotates the pickup roller to feed the sheet, even though a separating portion is provided in the downstream of the pickup roller, it may be difficult to separate the sheets when the sheets that overlap with each other enter the separating portion at once. Therefore, when the pickup roller feeds the sheet, it is required to loosely feed the sheet one by one to surely separate the sheets by the separating portion.
However, in the sheets combined at an edge by the cutting burr, it is difficult to divide the sheets one by one using the pickup roller so that the separating portion cannot sufficiently separate the sheets.
It is desirable to provide a sheet feeding device with an improved separating and feeding performance that separately feeds a sheet accommodated in a sheet storage portion one by one and an image forming apparatus including the same.